Lillian Copeland (2003) - USC Athletics Hall of Fame

Lillian Copeland

Induction:
2003
Class:
1931

Lillian Copeland, USC’s earliest outstanding female athlete, was the first Trojan woman trackster to compete in the Olympics. After setting national marks in the shot put and discus throw in 1926 as a sophomore at USC, she won a silver medal in the discus at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics (that was the first year that women’s discus was included in Olympic competition). Then, in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, she won the discus gold medal with a world record heave of 132-2. She was a 5-time AAU shot put champion (1925-26-27-28-31) and twice won AAU crowns in the discus (1926-27) and javelin (1926-31). She set 5 American records in those events. She was regarded as the greatest American female athlete of her time. She was inducted into the National track & field hall of fame in 1994. She is also a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the Los Angeles High School Sports Hall of Fame and the Woman’s Track and Field Hall of Fame. In 2016, she was named to the Pac-12 All-Century Team. A product of Los Angeles High, she was an officer with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department from 1936 to 1960. She died on July 7, 1964, at age 59.